Hull City vice-chairman and SMC director Ehab Allam puts his side of the story on his relationship with Hull City Council and THAT security gate across the KCOM Stadium footbridge.

Q. Is there a relationship with the council as it seems very fractious?

A. I have a great relationship with the council. I had a meeting with them last week. I had a meeting with the chief executive and head of legal and sat down to talk to them about the Fair and I said I was happy to open the gate but it is your event, it’s on your hands, I am happy to open the gate indemnifying for public liability and then if I staff and patrol the path to the Fair I charge you or you police it yourself.

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I said I was happy to open the gate I just want the indemnity and for somebody to cover the cost of the policing. They were very happy with that. They took it to the councillors and they said no.

So I have a good relationship with the council and the officers of the council and have very sensible meetings, but unfortunately when they take it back to councillors that I don’t have a good relationship with, that’s where it falls down.

The controversial gate on KCOM Stadium footbridge

The people who work for the council are very good, very sensible and very reasonable. Unfortunately we have some elected members who aren’t so sensible and reasonable and who just look to mislead the public at every opportunity possible.

Q. Why do you have a poor relationship with councillors?

A. I think we are an easy target. I think Councillor Colin Inglis is being reckless with his comments and has stated untruths, whether deliberately or not is almost irrelevant, they’re not true. He said recently the council should have taken us to task on the (Airco) arena.

Excuse me, you did, you took us to court and you failed. I don’t understand what he means by saying the council should have made a stance over the arena, isn’t that misleading the public?

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You did make a stance and you lost. I don’t think he’s painting himself in a pretty picture at all.

Q. You said just now you had a good relationship with the council and it’s about to change, why is it?

A. When you look at the behaviour of certain councillors such as Cllr Inglis, who is not acting very professionally saying he’s written to our sponsors, I just think it is very immature and childish.

Ehab Allam

We have lease agreement which governs the relationship. His opinion is irrelevant. Any opinion of how it should be is irrelevant, just as his opinion is irrelevant, the only thing that matters is what did you sign at the time. I didn’t agree to it (the SMC lease), I inherited the contract.

Q. What is the reason for the gate?

A. There are many reasons and many many measures which you will see implemented at the stadium over the course of the next few weeks.

We do feel that the stadium is exposed on a match day and non-match days. We have extra security provisions on a match day. We’ve got sniffer dogs, we’re going to have people at the turnstiles checking people in, limit the number of bags and size of bags allowed into the stadium, we are improving security for the players at home matches and away matches as well.

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Hull Fair 2017

We also need to improve the security of the stadium on non-match days. Because the land is operated by us for the next 50 years, the public liability on site is down to the SMC.

In terms of public liability we need to control who is on site at any one time and we need to control the vehicles coming onto the bowl. There are many measures we are going to implement, one of which is reducing the number of access points to the stadium on non-matchdays as they are considered the weak entry points into the stadium.

Hull City's Assem and Ehab Allam.

There is a lot of public liability. We get lots of young gangs of youths on the steps and walkway to the stadium and what if one of them breaks their neck? It is my public liability insurance and my name on the safety certificate.

There are many reasons. One is terrorism by decreasing the entry points into the stadium, but it is not just terrorism, it’s public liability too.

Q. Would you give the SMC up as a family?

A. The council wouldn’t take it. We’ve offered it to the council before publicly and there is no interest. We made it public and there has been no official approach to take the lease for £1, £1m or £10m. The price is irrelevant. I don’t think the council has any appetite. This is just one voice and one councillor.

Ehab and his father Assem Allam are the owners of the SMC

Why is he speaking publicly and not sending us a letter from the council saying we are in breach of the contract and they are taking control? They can’t because they don’t have a leg to stand on legally and because they don’t really want to because they can see the problems associated with SMC and they couldn’t sustain the losses the SMC makes.

Even now while Cllr Inglis is making these statements in public they are not being backed up by his own members. There has been no direct approach from the council and I think he’s just trying to promote himself publicly but he has no legal basis.